


Locked In

by Noscere



Series: Fourth wall? *tick* *tick* *tick* BOOM! What wall? [1]
Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012), xcom 2
Genre: Breaking the Fourth Wall, Character Death, Gen, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:59:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8314786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noscere/pseuds/Noscere
Summary: When you die in real life, the campaign goes on… sort of.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the Commanders who couldn't live to see the campaign's end, or even XCOM's rebirth. o7

There’s blood all over the Commander’s Quarters, and the Commander lies dead.

The computer terminal is gone, as are the Commander’s tablet, a quarter kilo of supplies – some gold nuggets, a few coils of copper wire, some silver ingots, destined to be used in a GREMLIN's electronic circuits – and a ring passed down from the Commander’s grandmother. It screams theft: petty in the old world, grand theft in this new world where a cow is worth three cars and pilfered ADVENT technology conceivably worth someone's life. Nobody knows who could have breached the inner sanctum, murdered XCOM’s Commander, then waltzed out with their ill-gotten goods in tow without a trace.

Any attempt to contact the terminal or the tablet is futile. The thief must have somehow disabled the tracking mechanisms: that, or smashed the technology to bits. Bradford doubts it is the latter. The computer was heavily modified for the Commander's workload, worth its weight in beer and gold. It is worth eighty weeks' paychecks of minimum wage back in Kansas. XCOM doesn't have the time or resources to scour every pawnshop in the Resistance Havens for missing hardware. They are broadcasting a constant self-destruct signal to keep their secrets out of ADVENT's hands, but there is no recovering the technology. Or the Commander. It's always easier to replace hard, dead tech than living, breathing human beings.

There are bloody handprints over the sofas, shattered table legs scattered over the floor. There was a struggle. The Commander did not go lightly, and yet nobody at XCOM heard. Three bullets pierced his Commander's chest: one direct hit to the lungs, one to the gut, and one between the ribs. His superior most likely had two minutes warning and struggle, until the intruder pulled a gun. At this close range, there was no avoiding the bullets.

He laughs bitterly. _Close range_ , indeed.

Some part of the Central Officer, as he looks upon the ruins of the Commander's Quarters, wonders what could have been done. Better locks, sealed with electronic codes and three-key sliding bolts? Perhaps that would have deterred the intruder from the crime in the first place. Would guns and knives, stored under every chair and desk,

There are no explanations, no rational for this madness. Who would harm, much less kill, the Commander? The men might have their gripes about the Commander’s – may have had, past tense, when the Commander’s body is cooling in the morgue – and the Commander’s orders may have been questionable. But nobody would raise their gun against their superior.

Looters, maybe. Lawless men, made bold by the anarchy that ADVENT has permitted to blossom in their wake. Drugged up women, seeking cash for a few grams of coke - it didn't matter that the Commander was the head of Earth's last hope, Bradford's superior was only a cash register for someone chasing their next high. A vengeful ex - no, there is no way that such a person could breach the Avenger, not without Bradford and a team of heavily armed soldiers noticing. Although his men have the aim of overly fed toddlers, the Central Officer is certain that when called upon to defend their Commander, their men would have followed the Commander to Hell itself.

Empty promises and hopes, now that the Commander's body cools on the blood smeared floor of the Quarters.

All that Bradford knows is that his Commander is gone, and XCOM is lacking for that loss.

 


End file.
